For every triumph another must suffer

[kyrasantae]

My parents returned a couple of weeks ago from Hong Kong, where they were visiting my aunt (paternal; by marriage) who had come down with lung cancer (non-smoker) and was undergoing chemotherapy.

And now last night my sister messages me on Facebook: "Are you coming to Vancouver?" She studies there and is supposed to move out and fly home on Wednesday.

"Depends on when... I mean, I'd like to actually have time to work and earn some money once I come back from Finland," I replied.

"No... I mean, this week."

"I don't know anything about this... is this to bring your computer back?" She's upgrading to a MacBook this summer, you see. Well, whatever was going on, I think she assumed that my parents had already phoned and told me about it, which they hadn't.

Anyway, Mom and Dad came to pick me up and move out my stuff this morning (and I made it a really easy job for them since I moved everything out of my room and outside the front doors before they even showed up - what, I had nothing better to do - so all we had to do was load all of it into the car). On the way back to Calgary they let me in on what the heck my sister was going on about. After all, she got the information second-hand (as opposed to third, fourth, etc...).

One of my uncles (maternal side) has just been diagnosed with rectal cancer, and went in for surgery yesterday to get the tumour removed. Turns out that the cancer is quite advanced and they couldn't just cut it out, so now he has to get radiation treatment. He's currently still in hospital.

Now, this is the uncle who was always the family outcast and rebel... who never really gave up his childhood. My sister and I are his youngest nieces and so we always got special treatment from him. He'd buy us books and toys all the time and he was the one who did his best to buy and smuggle to me D&D books and M:tG cards to feed my covert hobbies in high school.

And now, I just get home to Calgary tonight and I'm flying out to Vancouver with my mom tomorrow afternoon to visit my uncle and to help my sister move her things, since my uncle was originally to help her move and take her to the airport. She'll be flying to Calgary on Wednesday still, but Mom and I will be staying until Saturday.

Less time to fret about preparing for Finland and stuff, I guess. Even though I haven't even begun to pick out the items in my belongings that I plan to take there. And I finally got to play with my new phone. And shiny electrical socket adapter plugs.

Comments

[fakiiri.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your uncle. I hope he'll pull it through.